infoTECH News

[June 12, 2014]

faceshift Studio 2014 Announced

ZURICH --(Business Wire)--

On June 17th, faceshift will unveil "faceshift Studio 2014", a big step
forward in the facial-tracking software. While maintaining the familiar
streamlined user interface, this version now brings new capabilities to
improve the overall quality and efficiency of the facial-tracking
software. In particular emphasis has been placed on improving the
fidelity of the tracking data, producing far more refined data both live
and in post. In addition, numerous features have been added to improve
workflow efficiency for both large animation studios and small indies.

faceshift Studio 2014 includes a host of new abilities, including the
following features:

Improved Tracking Quality

Most of the emphasis on 2014 has been to improve the general fidelity of
the tracking data. Facial shapes are now much smoother at rest and
during motion, while maintaining crisp shape reproduction.

Training Process

The Training process has been both streamlined and extended. To speed up
the time-with-actor, an option now exists to automatically progresses
through Expressions, saving numerous clicks and significant time. To
improve the likeness and accuracy, Training now includes eye
expressions, allowing actor-specific eyelid shapes to be trained. To
ensure maximum control, 3D manipulators have been added to adjust eyelid
an eye position. To top it off, the fitting process has significantly
sped up.

T-Pose Neutralization

Motion Capture Studios will find our "T-Pose Neutralization" a familiar
process. Users can hit this button live or in recorded sequences to
neutralize all facial expressions the current pose.

Texture Choice

The Training process now defaults to the front-most texture sample. This
saves valuable time when reviewing the accuracy of the fit and adjusting
Manual Correspondences.

Rehostable Licenses

Too often busy studios need to temporarily transfer a license to a
different machine, for instance while shooting remotely in a sound
studio. Now this is now allowed within the Preference tab.

Import/Export/Reset Settings

Want to replicate your exact settings onto another machine? Or reset
your settings back to square one? Now you can.

UI Improvements

Numerous small adjustments have been made to the user interface, while
maintaining the same easy-to-use workflow. For instance, annotated
frames are now labeled on the timeline, making it easy to see what
frames have been marked-up. Audio waveforms are now displayed, allowing
easy trimming of animation to specific parts of the track. And specific
frames can now be entered in the Trim interface itself, for exact range
cropping. If a Custom Detector is used, it is now displayed in the UI.

faceshift Studio 2014 will go live on the faceshift store (http://www.faceshift.com/get-faceshift/)
on June 17th, and can be bundled with or without a 3D depth sensor for
$1800 or $1500, respectively. Academic and Freelance versions will be
available as well.

About faceshift

Launched in November 2012, Swiss-based startup faceshift is a spinoff
from ETH and EPFL. faceshift software is used by animation studios in
over 30 countries to drive the facial animation of virtual characters
from real performances. Additional information can be found at www.faceshift.com.

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